霞

xiá

noun #34,165

Meanings

1 rosy clouds (at sunrise or sunset)
2 afterglow
3 rosy sky

Characters

霞

xiá

rosy clouds

Examples

HSK 3

天边的霞光美极了。

Tiānbiān de xiá guāng měi jíle.

The rosy glow at the horizon is gorgeous.

HSK 7-9

落霞与孤鹜齐飞。

Luòxiá yǔ gū wù qí fēi.

The sunset clouds fly together with the lone wild duck.

Tips

culture

The classic line 落霞与孤鹜齐飞，秋水共长天一色 ('Sunset clouds fly with the lone wild duck; autumn waters share one color with the boundless sky') comes from Wang Bo's 《滕王阁序》 (Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng, 7th century) - possibly the most famous depiction of 霞 in classical literature.

memory

The character is a phono-semantic compound: 雨 (rain) on top for 'sky/weather,' 叚 (jiǎ) on the bottom for the sound. Compare 虾 (shrimp), 假 (false), 瑕 (flaw) - all share the 叚 component for the 'xia/jia' sound family.

Components

radical

雨 yǔ

rain; precipitation

Top rain radical (Kangxi #173) - pictograph of clouds with falling raindrops. Indexes 霞 firmly in the weather-and-sky family: 雪 (snow), 雷 (thunder), 雾 (fog), 露 (dew), 霜 (frost). 霞 names the rosy mist or coloured clouds painted across the sky at dawn or dusk - pure sky phenomenon, hence the rain radical perched on top like the clouds themselves.

phonetic

叚 xiá

borrow; rosy

Bottom 叚 supplies the sound - xiá unchanged. 叚 is the archaic form of 假 (to borrow); the meaning doesn't carry directly. Pure phonetic role. Same phonetic in 假 (borrow/false), 暇 (leisure - borrowed time), 瑕 (flaw in jade), 遐 (distant). 朝霞 'morning glow' and 晚霞 'evening glow' are the classic compounds; the character carries an unmistakably poetic register.

Stroke Order

霞 xiá

霞